Meet John White

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful John White. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with John below.

John, so glad you were able to set aside some time for us today. We’ve always admired not just your journey and success, but also the seemingly high levels of self-discipline that you seem to have mastered and so maybe we can start by chatting about how you developed it or where it comes from?
Growing up an only child I always felt like I had a certain responsibility to sacrifice the same way my parents sacrificed for me. For me to be here, for me to do the things I want to do in life, they had to take on a certain level of risk and undergo sacrifices. In order for me to pay it forward and make them proud, I have to be focused and stick to the road no matter how hard it gets. I am not only trying to achieve my goals for myself, I’m trying to reach them for my dad, my mom, and those that aren’t here anymore. I want to pay back everything they did for me to be in this position.

In short, it’s about always remembering where you come from and where you want to go.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I am a musician; I am a singer, songwriter, producer. I have an artist project called “John White” that we started about a year and a half ago, which I kind of fell into when I quit my job and decided I wanted to pursue music full-time. I saw a window of opportunity after I quit to use the money I had saved to fund the dream that I always had. Now that I am comfortably working as a freelance songwriter, I have the time and freedom to pursue all of my own creative endeavors. Currently, I spend my time in the studio five to seven days a week trying to build my catalog as much as I can while I have this time before starting a new album cycle and starting to get busy.

I feel incredibly lucky in the position that I’m in, creating without a middleman. I can make the music I want to make, produce it, mix it. Everything I went through, whether it was school, college, working at a label, meeting the people I’ve met—I’ve reached a point where I can do whatever I want as far as the creative goes. With that freedom, I hope to help other people, spread joy, be an inspiration. Everyone has their dreams, but my priority is being in a position where other kids can see me and know that they can do it themselves. I want to tell as many stories as possible and hope that someone that sees me can relate to that. I want people to hear one of my songs or watch one of my videos and see themselves in the hopes that it gives them some form of solace.

Our first project titled FAMILY was for my family and my father who passed away. It came out in December and I’m proud to have commit to something and put it out. Putting out a body of work feels like a milestone in and of itself. Coming up, we have my debut album, THROUGH THE TREES, coming later this summer and I hope it connects with people in a meaningful way.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
The diverse amount of music my dad played in the house growing up helped open my mind to the different sounds and stories in the world around me. The second is teaching myself how to make the music, realizing that I could create on my own. And the third is, perseverance. There is a power in not giving up. I’ve been at this since I was 14 and I’m 29 now, what’s helped me the most is to keep going. Not giving up.

To anyone early in their journey, the strongest thing you can do is believe in yourself. There will always be moments of doubt, but if there’s even an ounce of your soul telling you to do something—follow it.

Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?
A book that has changed my perspective on how I live my life is Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra. I always felt like I was chasing things and trying to get to a certain pinnacle of success, but the book made me realize that you attract the same energy that you put out. I try to match those vibrations and trust the unknown in the universe. Nothing is a wasted effort, it’s the intent behind things. If your intent is to do ABC and it is all coming from a genuine place of kindness, that energy will always come back to you no matter what. In life, you are giving energy and you’re getting energy. As long as you lead with love, that energy will always come back to you.

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Image Credits
Iris Lee

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